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Gulf crisis: can its resolution reshape the future of international relations?
Global Village Space |
James M. Dorsey |
The five-week-old Gulf crisis raises questions about the fundaments of international relations, the definition of national security, and the ability of small states to chart an independent course that is likely to be debated long after Gulf states have buried their hatchets.
US role in Gulf Crisis
The crisis that pits a Saudi-UAE-led alliance against Qatar entered a new phase this week with the arrival of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the region in a bid to resolve the dispute among states that are US allies, many of which host key US military facilities. The United States is widely seen as the only power capable of brokering a resolution.
Mr. Tillerson arrived in the region as the lay of the land shifted with the leaking to CNN of secret agreements concluded in 2014 between Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
The Saudi-UAE-led alliance declared last month a diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar because it had failed to implement the 2014 agreement that put an end to an earlier diplomatic embargo of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.
Read more: All the UAE’s men: Gulf crisis opens door to power shift in Palestine
The leaked documents leave little doubt that Qatar has violated those agreements. Qatari actions at the time of the signing of the agreements, however, made clear even before the ink was dry that the Gulf state had no intention of being bullied into accepting a policy dictate and would at best take minimal steps to implement the accord.
The boycott
Last month’s boycott of Qatar was designed to force the Gulf state to fully comply with the agreement under which Qatar would halt its support for Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood as well as jihadist organizations, refrain from interfering in the domestic affairs of other Gulf states as well as Yemen, and temper free-wheeling reporting and debate on the controversial Al Jazeera network that operates in a regional media landscape that is dominated by state-controlled outlets. Some of the Saudi-UAE demands went beyond the original agreement.
The Saudi-UAE-led boycott, despite the legal weakness of Qatar’s position based on the 2014 agreement, goes to much broader issues that are likely to shape future international relations and spark debate on what the distinction is between national interest and the interest of rulers to ensure their survival at whatever cost. The crisis has already prompted debate in small states elsewhere on the degree to which size limits their ability to chart their own course.
Read more: Stepping up the pressure: Saudi strong arms Muslim nations to take sides in Gulf crisis
What is Saudi-UAE alliance ignoring?
At the bottom line, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are seeking to force Qatar, ironically an autocratic state in its own right, to accept the Middle East that is dominated by the Gulf behemoths and designed to ensure the survival of autocratic and repressive rule irrespective of what is legal under international law. The Saudi-UAE demands ignore the fact that some of the Qatari attitudes towards political Islam as well as more militant groups were approaches adopted for decades by Saudi Arabia and its other detractors.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE long supported the Brotherhood dating back to the 1950s and 1960s when members of the group were forced into exile in the Gulf by a crackdown by then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s whose Arab nationalism was perceived as a threat to absolute monarchical rule in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia moreover has over the years supported militant groups in countries like Pakistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina that served its geopolitical ambitions, and in Syria, together with Qatar.
Similarly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE tinkered with their demands in the last five weeks to suit their geopolitical designs. Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot that controls the Gaza Strip, was dropped off the two States’ list of terrorist organizations to accommodate the possible return to Palestine of a UAE-backed Palestinian politician and former security chief who aims to become Palestine’s next leader.
Read more: Gulf crisis: Is Saudi Arabia the only bad guy here?
Hypocrisy?
The targeting of the Brotherhood raises the question whether demands for greater pluralism; more transparent, competitive politics; and free public debate constitute a threat to national security defined as a threat to territorial integrity or issues such as economic, energy, environmental and military security.
Ironically, Saudi Arabia was heavily criticized in 2002, less than a year after 9/11 for a tele-marathon on state-run television that raised millions of dollars for Palestinian groups, including Hamas. Saudi Arabia, together with one of Jordan’s main financial institutions, Arab Bank, stood at the time accused of funding terrorism. Saudi Arabia has since faced multiple allegations that it’s four-decade long, global funding of Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism fostered environments that enable militancy.
The Saudi-UAE demands, moreover, involve a measuring with two yardsticks on a far broader scale. Beyond the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is only prescribed in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt and not under international, US or European Union law, it also is a legally active organization in some of Qatar’s detractors like Bahrain and Jordan.
While there is little doubt that offshoots of the Brotherhood have employed political violence to achieve their goals, the group itself is perceived as a threat by Gulf autocrats because it advocates an alternative, republican form of Islamic government. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not attempted to prove that the Brotherhood advocates violence.
The targeting of the Brotherhood raises the question whether demands for greater pluralism; more transparent, competitive politics; and free public debate constitute a threat to national security defined as a threat to territorial integrity or issues such as economic, energy, environmental and military security.
Read more: Gulf crisis: A cash cow for the United States?
A Qatari cave-in to the Saudi-UAE demands risks legitimizing a definition of terrorism that would go far beyond defining it as the use of violence by non-state actors to achieve a political goal. It would give credence to the definition employed by autocrats and authoritarian leaders like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that includes all forms of political dissent or in the case of Saudi Arabia, atheists.
Read full article:
Gulf crisis: can its resolution reshape the future of international relations?
Global Village Space |
James M. Dorsey |
The five-week-old Gulf crisis raises questions about the fundaments of international relations, the definition of national security, and the ability of small states to chart an independent course that is likely to be debated long after Gulf states have buried their hatchets.
US role in Gulf Crisis
The crisis that pits a Saudi-UAE-led alliance against Qatar entered a new phase this week with the arrival of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the region in a bid to resolve the dispute among states that are US allies, many of which host key US military facilities. The United States is widely seen as the only power capable of brokering a resolution.
Mr. Tillerson arrived in the region as the lay of the land shifted with the leaking to CNN of secret agreements concluded in 2014 between Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
The Saudi-UAE-led alliance declared last month a diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar because it had failed to implement the 2014 agreement that put an end to an earlier diplomatic embargo of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.
Read more: All the UAE’s men: Gulf crisis opens door to power shift in Palestine
The leaked documents leave little doubt that Qatar has violated those agreements. Qatari actions at the time of the signing of the agreements, however, made clear even before the ink was dry that the Gulf state had no intention of being bullied into accepting a policy dictate and would at best take minimal steps to implement the accord.
The boycott
Last month’s boycott of Qatar was designed to force the Gulf state to fully comply with the agreement under which Qatar would halt its support for Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood as well as jihadist organizations, refrain from interfering in the domestic affairs of other Gulf states as well as Yemen, and temper free-wheeling reporting and debate on the controversial Al Jazeera network that operates in a regional media landscape that is dominated by state-controlled outlets. Some of the Saudi-UAE demands went beyond the original agreement.
The Saudi-UAE-led boycott, despite the legal weakness of Qatar’s position based on the 2014 agreement, goes to much broader issues that are likely to shape future international relations and spark debate on what the distinction is between national interest and the interest of rulers to ensure their survival at whatever cost. The crisis has already prompted debate in small states elsewhere on the degree to which size limits their ability to chart their own course.
Read more: Stepping up the pressure: Saudi strong arms Muslim nations to take sides in Gulf crisis
What is Saudi-UAE alliance ignoring?
At the bottom line, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are seeking to force Qatar, ironically an autocratic state in its own right, to accept the Middle East that is dominated by the Gulf behemoths and designed to ensure the survival of autocratic and repressive rule irrespective of what is legal under international law. The Saudi-UAE demands ignore the fact that some of the Qatari attitudes towards political Islam as well as more militant groups were approaches adopted for decades by Saudi Arabia and its other detractors.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE long supported the Brotherhood dating back to the 1950s and 1960s when members of the group were forced into exile in the Gulf by a crackdown by then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s whose Arab nationalism was perceived as a threat to absolute monarchical rule in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia moreover has over the years supported militant groups in countries like Pakistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina that served its geopolitical ambitions, and in Syria, together with Qatar.
Similarly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE tinkered with their demands in the last five weeks to suit their geopolitical designs. Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot that controls the Gaza Strip, was dropped off the two States’ list of terrorist organizations to accommodate the possible return to Palestine of a UAE-backed Palestinian politician and former security chief who aims to become Palestine’s next leader.
Read more: Gulf crisis: Is Saudi Arabia the only bad guy here?
Hypocrisy?
The targeting of the Brotherhood raises the question whether demands for greater pluralism; more transparent, competitive politics; and free public debate constitute a threat to national security defined as a threat to territorial integrity or issues such as economic, energy, environmental and military security.
Ironically, Saudi Arabia was heavily criticized in 2002, less than a year after 9/11 for a tele-marathon on state-run television that raised millions of dollars for Palestinian groups, including Hamas. Saudi Arabia, together with one of Jordan’s main financial institutions, Arab Bank, stood at the time accused of funding terrorism. Saudi Arabia has since faced multiple allegations that it’s four-decade long, global funding of Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism fostered environments that enable militancy.
The Saudi-UAE demands, moreover, involve a measuring with two yardsticks on a far broader scale. Beyond the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is only prescribed in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt and not under international, US or European Union law, it also is a legally active organization in some of Qatar’s detractors like Bahrain and Jordan.
While there is little doubt that offshoots of the Brotherhood have employed political violence to achieve their goals, the group itself is perceived as a threat by Gulf autocrats because it advocates an alternative, republican form of Islamic government. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not attempted to prove that the Brotherhood advocates violence.
The targeting of the Brotherhood raises the question whether demands for greater pluralism; more transparent, competitive politics; and free public debate constitute a threat to national security defined as a threat to territorial integrity or issues such as economic, energy, environmental and military security.
Read more: Gulf crisis: A cash cow for the United States?
A Qatari cave-in to the Saudi-UAE demands risks legitimizing a definition of terrorism that would go far beyond defining it as the use of violence by non-state actors to achieve a political goal. It would give credence to the definition employed by autocrats and authoritarian leaders like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that includes all forms of political dissent or in the case of Saudi Arabia, atheists.
Read full article:
Gulf crisis: can its resolution reshape the future of international relations?
